In Eble’s short and fourth chapter, “Why the Classroom,” he discusses the use of the classroom and its environment as tools for bettering and encouraging learning. Eble points out that the strict rigidness of the typical classroom can actually discourage learning, as its adherence to the norms may limit the students’ experiences. There are a few ways to move beyond the straightened rows of desks and chairs. He states that “a teacher shouldn’t be cowed by custom, colleagues, or janitors into accepting the neat rows and files of chairs that are the classroom norm,” and that “even such a simple act as moving chairs from orderly rows to the discussion circle marked a change.” This may seem like an obvious remedy, but its simplicity actually changes the learning space to make for a more casual, friendly, and non-threatening experience.

As many classes I’ve taken have proven, it can often be a good practice to remove the class from the classroom. Eble asked us: “shouldn’t there be informal places for gathering intermixed with the classrooms? Classes and classrooms do get in the way of learning. And many professors need help to break away from the restrictions implied by rooms and hours.” By holding a class outside of the classroom, in a library, at the student center, or in a park, the professor has removed the rigidness of the cold classroom, and has now promoted learning outside of the confines of a traditional campus. With this idea of a set room, Eble points out that good classes can come from poor classrooms. He adds that “the classroom is more than it’s physical configuration, and teachers and students together can create good classes even in poor rooms. If exchange of information, clarification of concepts, and stimulation to further study do take place in the classroom, they must commonly overcome the limitations that confine learning to a designated space, that place the student before or below the teacher, and that set a fixed period of time at fixed intervals as the norm for learning.” Learning isn’t confined to the classroom, and by limiting it thusly, the professor actually puts a limit on the student’s capacity to learn. To be summed up in it’s entirety, Eble states that “one is to give some relief from the fixed space by occasionally moving classes to more appropriate settings.” It’s an easy fix.

While learning is certainly encouraged in the classroom, the students must be encouraged to continue their learning beyond the classroom. Even in the largest of classes, Eble points out that by “putting students on their own during some class hours both expands the classroom and works against the student’s dependence on the teacher as sole source and authority.” Here, as we learned in the previous chapter, students must be encouraged to think – inside and outside of the classroom.

But the classroom can still be an effective place to hold a class! Eble simply reminds us that we have to move past the obstacles found within the traditional classroom. He states that “by treating class instruction in a slightly unusual way, this teacher solved a number of recurring practical problems: how to get students to read material; how to get them to discuss what they have read; how to respect students who prefer to remain silent and to give such students a chance to exchange ideas; how to deal more individually with students in a large class; and how to inject some drama into classroom proceedings.” It is more than possible to utilize the classroom to its fullest, and as Eble then suggests, “there is little to be lost and much to be gained in using the classroom, when appropriate, as theater.”

In the end of his chapter, Eble touches on competition found within, especially, American schools. He points out the fact that “American higher education by nature promoted competition not cooperation, and may fail in its own ambitions as a result.” Competition, in this capacity, can be a major deterrent to learning, while at the same time encouraging learning – but to a different degree. When we are only concerned with our own progress and advancement, we shut out the possibility to learn from the students around us. Eble touches on this more when he says that “there is a paradox running through much of the use of the classroom. Though it is a place for gathering it is not necessarily a place where students learn together, much less with the teacher. There is an air of competition that infects the classroom as it does the entire campus.” He concludes with the blanket statement that “good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated.”

So, with all of this kept in mind, one can make a few basic conclusions. The classroom can be an effective tool to promote learning – when used correctly. It is often a good idea to hold classes outside of classrooms, removing the strictness of the formal education, providing a good means of encouraging thought and learning. In addition, within and outside of these course rooms, cooperativeness must be encouraged so that the students may learn not only from the professor, but from their fellow students, as well.